Chapter 25 - Page 2

ship!" exclaimed the Rover, lowering his glass, the first to
proclaim the result of his long and close inspection.

"It is a ship!" echoed the General, across whose disciplined features a
ray of something like animated satisfaction was making an effort to
display itself.

"A full-rigged ship!" continued a third, relieving his eye in turn, and
answering to the grim smile of the soldier.

"There must be something to hold up all those lofty spars," resumed their
Commander. "A hull of price is beneath.--But you say nothing, Mr Wilder!
You make her out"----

"A ship of size," returned our adventurer, who, though hitherto silent,
had been far from the least interested in his investigations. "Does my
glass deceive me--or"----

"Or what, sir?"

"I see her to the heads of her courses."

"You see her as I do. It is a tall ship on an easy bow-line, with every
thing set that will draw. And she is standing hitherward. Her lower sails
have lifted within five minutes."

"I thought as much. But"----

"But what, sir? There can be little doubt but she is heading
north-and-east. Since she is so kind as to spare us the pains of a chase,
we will not hurry our movements. Let her come on. How like you the manner
of the stranger's advance, General?"

"Unmilitary, but enticing! There is a look of the mines about her very
royals."

"And you, gentlemen, do you also see the fashion of a galleon in her upper
sails?"

"'Tis not unreasonable to believe it," answered one of the inferiors. "The
Dons are said to run this passage often, in order to escape speaking us
gentlemen, who sail with roving commissions."

"Ah! your Don is a prince of the earth! There is charity in lightening his
golden burden, or the man would sink under it, as did the Roman matron
under the pressure of the Sabine shields. I think you see no such gilded
beauty in the stranger, Mr Wilder."

"It is a heavy ship!"

"The more likely to bear a noble freight. You are new, sir, to this merry
trade of ours, or you would know that size is a quality we always esteem
in our visitors. If they carry pennants, we leave them to meditate on the
many 'slips which exist between the cup and the lip;' and, if stored with
metal no more dangerous than that of Potosi, they generally sail the
faster after passing a few hours in our company."

"Is not the stranger making signals?" demanded Wilder, thoughtfully.

"Is he so quick to see us! A good look-out must be had, when a vessel,
that is merely steadied by her